By WILLIAM WITCZAK
With the recent news that Canada is stopping production of the penny in six months I went around Conestoga College to see if students could make “cents” of the situation.
“I think it makes sense because it costs 1.6 cents to make each individual penny, or at least that’s what I’ve heard through the news,” said Ben Worthington, a police foundations student. “To get rid of it, what effect does it really have on us? Buying coffee for an extra five cents, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. So I think it’s a good move on Canada’s part.”
For those of you who don’t know, the government is losing money on every penny produced. It costs approximately $11 million a year to supply pennies, which is why they are being phased out.
What this means for the average Canadian is that every cash purchase will be rounded to the nearest 0 or 5.
According to an article on cbc.ca, “the rounding will not be done on single items but on the total bill of sale. If the price ends in a one, two, six, or seven it gets rounded down to 0 or 5. It will be rounded up if it ends in three, four, eight or nine.”
Those using debit, credit cards or cheques won’t be affected. This could cause an interesting dilemma for those penny pinchers who want to save that extra cent. Should they use cash or credit?
But one thing remains certain, as far as students’ opinions go on pennies, as long as it’s saving Canada money, then they don’t really care. As public relations student Luca Mazzurro bluntly said, “I think we should scrap all the pennies, it costs too much to make them.”
The only negative that this reporter can think of is that future generations won’t be able to understand what “a penny for your thoughts” means.
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